What's In A Name
by F.A. Star Hawk
Summary: When Sena had caught sight of Suzuna lounging on a couch in the hotel's lobby, flipping through a sizeable book sporadically with an oddly satisfied look on her face, he hadn't known how to react. Suzuna had found a name dictionary. Two-shot.
1. Chapter 1

FASH: Suzuna is the easiest plot device in Eyeshield, really, she makes these things happen. I was just looking up name definitions one day, because I'm innately curious, and when I saw what Sena's apparently means... Well...

Disclaimer: Still don't own it, so don't sue me please, I'm poor.

When Sena had caught sight of Suzuna lounging on a large, comfortable looking couch in the hotel's lobby, flipping through a sizeable book sporadically with an oddly satisfied look on her face, he hadn't known how to react. When she glanced up at him with a widening smile reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat of Alice in Wonderland, he had begun to suspect something strange was going on.

"Did you know that Rikiya means strong? And Manabu means study? Their names are really spot on aren't they?" She asked conversationally before flipping to the very front of the book.

It took Sena a moment to realize that Rikiya and Manabu were Gaou and Yukimitsu's given names, and although he mentally agreed that yes, they were very spot on, he couldn't help but wonder why Suzuna felt the need to know what their names meant.

"Suzuna, why do the meanings of their given names matter? Don't you have more... Interesting things to do then look up what names mean?"

Suzuna allowed herself a moment to look up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't you curious? Parent's name their children according to what they want them to be, don't they?"

"Well, I suppose..." Sena trailed off, now feeling a little curious as to what the names of his other friends could mean.

Suzuna, seeming to sense his curiosity, sat up straight and patted the now free space beside her and Sena sat down, looking over the large name dictionary curiously.

"Did you look up your own name?"

"Suzu means little bell." She replied, her eyes once again focussed on the pages before her as she searched for a familiar name.

"That suits you, you're pretty cheery." Sena commented lightly before leaning closer. "Who are you looking for anyways?"

"Found him! Akira means intelligent."

"Akira?" Sena parroted and Suzuna gave him a dry look.

"Chuubou. Honestly Sena, I know you hardly call anyone by their given name, but you could at least try to remember it." Suzuna rolled her eyes before brightening up considerably and flipping to pages she marked with make-shift bookmarks made of a ripped magazine page.

"Kazuki means radiant hope. Isn't that adorable?"

"Um, I suppose so." Sena agreed, although he felt rather strange calling Juumonji's given name _adorable_.

"Shun means speed and fine horse, Gen means source of spring, Hayato means falconer, Reiji means courteous child..." Suzuna trailed off and quickly began flipping through the book once again.

"And now we're going to find out what Sena means." She shuffled through the pages and Sena took a moment to try and recall if he'd ever met someone with his name before, and if so, what type of person they had been.

Suzuna stopped flipping and scanned the pages in front of her, eyebrows furrowing.

"What does it mean?" Sena leaned in curiously, although he quickly leaned back when Suzuna let out an excited, shrill cry.

"A name originating from Japan: in Greek the meaning is _Goddess of the moon_, in Latin it means blessed. In both instances, the names are for a girl."

Sena could almost feel his heart sinking. "B-but what about what it means in Japanese, that's the name's origin after all."

"It doesn't say." Suzuna snapped the book shut and turned to him with a wide grin.

"Sena, I think your parents might have thought you were going to be a girl!"

Sena flushed, a little embarrassed that while some of his team mates' names were spot on, his was entirely off.

"Suzuna, never tell anybody else about this."

"I won't, I won't." Suzuna said with a dismissive wave of her hand, although she seemed far to excited to keep the information to herself. "Besides, who was it asking why people's given names matter? That's right, it was you. Besides: What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Sena frowned. "Don't use Shakespeare quotes to confuse me, just promise you won't tell anyone."

"Fine, I promise." Suzuna relented before flipping back through the name dictionary.

But of course, if she were to leave the name dictionary out in the open and someone else got curious and happened to flip through the S section, well, that wouldn't be her fault now, would it?


	2. Chapter 2

FASH: Shinnie The Meanie kindly directed me to a live journal post where a number of ES21 character's names and meanings had been listed, so I decided to do a short continuation so Sena doesn't have to worry about how in different countries his name is a girl's name. I got the characters for Sena's name from wikipedia, so I'm just assuming those are correct.

-x-x-x-

Ever since the previous day Sena had been on a mission to find out what his name really meant. (Not that he didn't trust Suzuna, but he trusted his parent's decision making skills a little more.)

And Suzuna's happiness over the subject had bothered him. He'd like to see her retain her grin if she found out her name meant something like _warrior _or _second son_ in a different language.

Besides, no matter how he looked at it: _Kobayakawa Sena_ must certainly have a different meaning than: 小早川 瀬那.

He'd been worrying over it and vainly trying to find out it's meaning through the use of online name dictionaries, which weren't entirely helpful because his name was rarely listed. He'd almost given up hope when night fell and Hiruma wandered over to him, asking him _why the hell_ he'd been distracted all day.

And then, after explaining the situation, _Hiruma_ of all people had come to his rescue, calmly flipping through his ever-present Devil's Handbook, then pausing and informing Sena of his name's meaning as if he had done this sort of thing a million times before. Which had truthfully been a little creepy, but Hiruma himself was a varying level of creepy at all times, so he didn't let it bother him.

All that mattered now was tracking Suzuna down and informing her of the name dictionary's omission, which was a thankfully easy task that hardly took five minutes.

"Suzuna, there's something I need to tell you." He stated seriously as soon as she was within hearing range.

She cocked her head to the side curiously. "What is it?"

"_Kobayakawa_ basically means 'little fast river' while _Sena_ means 'rapids'."

His name was so, totally _masculine_ (Even if it was a unisex name, or so Hiruma had told him.) when you ignored it's Greek and Latin meanings to focus on what it meant in it's_ language of origin_. _Take that_, Suzuna's name dictionary!

"That's... Pretty freakishly accurate actually." Suzuna rubbed at her chin in thought while Sena felt a small amount of triumph that he, like so many other members of his team, had a name that suited him.

"It's almost as if your parents knew exactly what you'd be like when you were older."

"Well, that's just a coincidence, isn't it?"

Because really, how could it not be a coincidence?

"Even when not only your given name, but also your family name, describe you so well?"

"Uh..." Sena rubbed the back of his neck. "Well it's not like my parent's changed their last name just so that my name could altogether mean something like 'fast little river rapids.' I'm sure they still would have called me 'Sena' even if they had a different last name."

Suzuna rose an eyebrow, as if to say: 'they would, really?'

"But don't you think it's strange that so many of our names are so descriptive or gag-like, as if to make it easier to remember who we are, like we were the characters in a manga or something?"

"... I didn't even notice any of our names were descriptive or gag-like until you told me their meaning yesterday, it's a coincidence, co-in-ci-dence."

Suzuna rolled her eyes at Sena's unmindfulness before a thought struck her.

"Or is it... _hitsuzen_?"

"... What?"

Suzuna excitedly grabbed his hand and began dragging him away. "Let's investigate!"

"Investigate why? Investigate _what_? And where are you taking me anyways?"

Maybe he should have just kept his discovery to himself.


End file.
